This blog is an archive of DKW related articles, manuals, brochures and posts. It also covers East German successor marques, such as IFA, AWZ, Wartburg, Sachsenring, MZ and IWL.
I have paraphrased this from a German article in www.ruhrnachrichten.de by author, Arne Niehörster, about people's first car stories. This story comes from East Germany in the 1950s, when cars were expensive and hard to come by. Young Joachim Stückrad of Husen, near Dresden, was fortunate enough to get his hands on an old Framo Piccolo, which he and his friends enjoyed (and ultimately destroyed) during the late 50s.
Heavenly journey! Joachim and his friends on the way to the Ore Mountains. The fifth in the group rode his bike and arrived there first.
"We have never had much luck," Joachim Stückrad said to his family after the first test drive of his Framo Piccolo (built in 1938) in Dresden in 1955. But he hoped that this would change with the purchase of this car. And indeed, for the graduate engineer from Husen his dream came true for only 2000 Ostmark. Stückrad remembers rapturously: “The car was beautiful in appearance, with its edged hood, which did not even open. Inside there was also nothing except the steering column. Looking towards the back there were air vents over the engine cover. Under the engine cover you could see straight through to the road”
"The engine was sitting under a small hump in the rear seat" explained Stückrad. A 300 cubic centimeter DKW two-stroke engine delivered a mighty seven horsepower. The best part was the starter - because it did not exist - at least not when Stückrad owned it. "The previous owner has lost the starter, however a kickstarter was externally mounted beside the driver's door." If the car stalled at an intersection when driving solo there was nothing for it but to jump out and work up a bit of sweat. But when driving with his girlfriend, it was “no problem. My sweetheart hopped out, took a couple of kicks on the kickstarter and off we went on our merry way."
The Framo’s light weight presented unusual problems. "Once, we drove the Framo to a student party and some pranksters carried it up the stairs to the cafeteria," Stückrad recalls. Plop plop-plop - he drove it down the stairs again.
Vacations, however, were mostly one way journeys. "We often had to resort to other means of transport to get home." On a trip to the Saale dam, with a tent and folding boat, on a rise of almost five degrees the Framo slowed to walking pace. First his girlfriend had to get out, then the speed picked up a little. Eventually even Stückrad had to hit the road, jogging along as the car chugged away at full throttle, controlling the throttle through the open window. "Half pushed by me, she managed to reach the bottom of the mountain," says Stückrad, Next they went on to the steep, hard slopes of the Wilsdruffer mountain. This proved to be the last trip for the Framo, due to piston seizure. http://www.ruhrnachrichten.de/44319-Husen~/Serie-Mein-erstes-Auto-Der-Framo-Piccolo-auf-wilder-Fahrt;art2576,320803
Jorge Rasmussen's Framo-Werkes had made its name manufacturing cheap tricycle delivery wagons. Following Rasmussen's sacking from Auto-Union in 1934, he turned his focus to Framo and initiated a series of budget car projects. These ultimately proved to be unsuccessful. Framo's tricycles were updated and a new series of four wheeled commercial vehicles were introduced. The four wheeled range was powered by a 500cc two cylinder DKW two-stroke engine, built under license. Framo offered a small sedan based on the same platform as their light truck. Few were sold however and in 1936, as part of the Schell rationalization program, Framo was instructed to cease all tricycle and personal vehicle production and were licensed only to produce their light truck.
It is not unknown that the Volkswagen of tomorrow will have a motor of 1000cc or more and will be built exclusively as a four-seater. Today there are the different four-seaters and two-seaters, but there are also two-seater mini-cars, which are manufactured by Framo and Standard. One thing is certain: the future belongs to the four-wheel car!
If it becomes possible to build an effective and economical budget car and reduce its operating costs to around 5 to 7 pfennig per kilometre, there will hardly be any interest in the two-seater mini-car, whose limited offering will no longer be attractive for its cost.
But we are not there yet! The real small car of good quality still costs 2000 RM. If all operating costs, including depreciation and interest, are taken into account, this amounts to more than 10 pfennig per kilometre. This expense is too high for many, who must therefore choose a motorcycle or a mini-car that is much cheaper in purchase and operating costs. There have been numerous experimental constructions and hybrid designs available today, which demonstrate that many aspects of purchase price, operating costs, stability, road-holding, and driving comfort can be fully satisfied, to some degree.
It is apparent though that the auto industry has no great interest in developing the small car for the people, because the type of vehicle that can be sold for about 1500 Marks is hard to sell. There are many who would prefer to wait a little longer to save for a DKW or Opel or settle for a motorcycle.
At this moment there is increasing interest in an economical and robust small car that can be built for little more than 1000 Mark. This car must be three-seated, because the pure two-seater is only enough for a local shopper, the single man, and the loving couple. A three-seater or the four-seater makes more sense for the future even if the family is only two at the moment.
What is offered?
After this introductory critique, we provide a report for the small car, the Framo Piccolo, which is priced at 1295 RM for the two-seater convertible sedan. It is obvious that to reach this price, there are things, especially in terms of the bodywork and equipment, the hood for example, which have been sacrificed.
You have to ignore more than usual certain elements. The cheap upholstered seat is not as comfortable as a lounge chair and will probably not have a long service life. The simple, springy fabric-covered tubular steel chair is acceptable for a small car. It is also space-saving and easy to clean.
The Framo Piccolo is called a two-seater with two child seats. The child seats are extremely small and are located a bit too high, next to the engine. They would not be comfortable for travel over longer distances, so the car is really just a two-seater.
The exterior appearance of the car is nice. Rather than a false radiator grill, which the customer expects, the bonnet has a simple, smooth face. This looks better. The car has a convertible top so that it can be driven open. The driving characteristics of this small car are not bad at all. It has a modern chassis with a central tube frame, independent swinging front wheels on
leaf springs and a rigid rear axle, which has also been leaf-sprung. As with similar small cars, power is provided by a fan cooled DKW single-cylinder engine, placed in front of the rear axle, although placement is somewhat cramped.
The drive from the gearbox to the rear wheels is done via an enclosed chain. The car’s handling is safe on the road and even in the country. Although the Framo Piccolo is comparatively light, you cannot ask too much from a 300cc engine. Initially, the performance of the car was inadequate and fuel consumption excessively high. By changing the gear ratios and installing a different carburetor (Framo B, Duse 45) has significantly improved performance and economy.
The Framo is easy to drive. Seating is comfortable as the car has now received two single seats, rather than the bench seat the car originally supplied. If you take a seat out a large space is available for luggage.
The noise of the engine is annoying in only the medium speed range. It would be better to have a water-cooled engine, as the water jacket provides a noise dampening effect. Unfortunately, that would again increase the price.
Performance and consumption
It is actually amazing that today a 300cc engine is capable of driving a four-wheeled, spacious two-seater car reasonably fast and efficiently. A few years ago that was inconceivable, but in the meantime the performance and capability of engines has been increased significantly.
Like all other DKW machines, the engine is built according to the principle of reversing scavenging with flat pistons. The advantages of the design are well known, the flat piston without the usual domed top, ensures a more uniform pressure distribution for better heat dissipation. By reversed scavenging the efficiency of the engine is improved; after every combustion stroke, the combustion chamber will be properly flushed out. The result is an increase in effective performance while reducing fuel consumption.
Measurements taken on the AVUS with two persons aboard showed the fuel consumption rate of 5 litres per 100 km at a speed of about 45 kmp/h. Afterwards, the car was trialed on a regular street driving course, with long straights and steep slopes. The car was partially driven at full throttle. Fuel consumption rises to 6.2 litres per 100 km in these conditions, which must
necessarily be described as favourable. The same applies to the top speed of 60 kmp/h, with two people aboard.
The original article:
The Autocar, 9th January 1942. That 6 Horsepower Car by Montague Tombs
1934 was a pivotal year in the continental motoring industry. After years of strident criticism of the conservatism of the German motoring industry, Josef Ganz was finally seeing movement towards he long sought for 'volks-wagen', a budget car affordable to the working man. At the 1934 Berlin Motor Show, several new players were exhibiting new models that they hoped would satisfy the new chancellor, Adolf Hitler,'s brief and capitalize on a huge, untapped market. One of those cars was the Framo Picollo, developed by DKW's former managing director, Jorge Rasmussen. Ganz' Motor Kritik magazine was fulsome in its praise for the new vehicle.
"The automobile exhibition took place at a later date this year. As a result, the usual press was unable to report in its usual detail. In this, our preliminary report, we refer to our assessment of initial specifications that we considered important enough for investigate further. It is our intention to discuss the details more so later.
One thing is certain, that this year’s exhibits have demonstrated in a most interesting way, the advanced use of automobile technology in the modern direction. If, as in recent years, the main interest of the designer was in chassis reform, has been accepted, then after its consolidation efforts will now turn towards perfection of the use of power. Look for finer motors, improved gears and transmissions, torque converters and the like. The results of the effort should be very noteworthy, to create vehicles adapted to the conditions of the highways. Unfortunately, there is too much about what one knows and suspects, so one has nothing to say about it before the beginning of the exhibition. But the bell of the opening of this new era is very close, so your patience will not be put to the test much longer.
The Framo-Werke GMBH is extremely enterprising. Among other things, they have introduced a volkswagen that deserves the most careful attention. The vehicle is a cute four-wheel car and costs as a convertible two-seater RM1225, and RM1275, as two-seater with two child seats. This vehicle is designed by the same car designer who once created the Mollmobil. The Mollmobil was already ahead of its time in its day (for more about the Mollmobil cyclecar - http://www.oldie-point.at/unser-angebot/detailansicht/vehicle/moll-mobil/).
The Framo Piccolo is a rear-engined car and has many standard features for this category of vehicle; it has a central tube frame and front independent suspension in the form of a cross sprung parallelogram. Steering is by rack and pinion. Rear suspension is via cantilever springs that are mounted on a cross beam running under the rear seats. This is attached to the central tube, which runs under the body floor, to which a rigid, differential-free drive axle is mounted. The axle is suspended by a fork joined to the frame by means of a rubber elastic joint and an additional push rod. The motor is suspended near the centre of the frame and drives the rear axle by means of an enclosed chain case. Since the drive block moves with the axle, consistent transmission of power is maintained.
The engine is a 300cm DKW two-stroke motor with reverse scavenging, with dynostarter, fan-forced air cooling, and a multi-plate clutch with reverse gear. Braking is provided by cable brakes, without compensation, working on all four wheels. Width is 1100mm and length at the axles is 2200mm. Wheel size is 25x3. Advertised high speed is 60 kph. The Framo Piccolo was undoubtedly a main attraction of the show because he wants to be the car for the common man."
But, as we know, it was not to be for the Framo Piccolo. Or the Standard Superior, or Hansa 400, or Bungartz Butz or the many other microcars that were exhibited at the show, for under the main hall stood the new car from the Czechoslovakian innovator, Tatra. The Tatra T77 stole the show, drawing the attention of Adolf Hitler. When he gave his opening speech later at the show he expanded on his vision for his people's car: it would be modern, steel and advanced in design and construction, economic to run and cheap to buy. The plywood microcars were out of the running and the road to the true Volkswagen was opened.
In October 1930, DKW’s managing director, Jorge Rasmussen, challenged his design team to develop a budget car in time for the February 1931 Berlin Motor Show. This was a significant technical challenge for the design team as the show was less than six months away. Nevertheless, they managed to deliver a true ‘little marvel’ in the revolutionary DKW F1, the world’s first front wheel drive production car. The new car was built around a simple ladder chassis and powered by a newly designed two cylinder two-stroke motor of 500cc capacity. The plywood and leatherette body was Spartan, but handsome, and at only 1700 Reichsmark, the car found an instant market. The Little Wonder, the DKW F1 was the first in Auto-Union's long lineage of front wheel drive cars that continues today in Audi's range. It's worthwhile noting that the early cars only had a single door on the right hand side.
DKW’s motorcycle and small car range went on to become the bedrock of the Auto-Union conglomerate, comprising Audi, Horch, Wanderer and DKW. DKW alone provided 50% of the group’s sales and one third of its net profits, enabling the other, uneconomical brands to stay afloat through the hard times of the Great Depression. It therefore came as something of a shock to Rasmussen to find himself denied the managing directorship of Auto-Union that he felt was his by right. Open conflict ensured as the board increasingly froze him out of their decision making, until he was unceremoniously sacked in 1934.
As his relationship with the Auto-Union board deteriorated through 1933, Rasmussen initially retreated to DKW’s technical design bureau, however, even here he found himself up against Horch’s former design bureau chief, Willem Werner, who was in the process of consolidating each brand’s design bureau under his control. To escape the tensions at Auto-Union, Rasmussen turned to his attention to his non-Auto-Union businesses, including the Framo commercial vehicle company.
Framo had been founded by Rasmussen and two other partners to manufacture fittings for DKW motorcycles, such as seats, handlebars and brakes. In 1924 the company took possession of a stock of obsolete DKW Lomos scooter parts and used them to construct a simple delivery tricycle. There was a busy market for motorized delivery tricycles in Germany and soon Framo became a dedicated small commercial vehicle manufacturer. By 1932 Framo were a well-known brand competing successfully with the market leaders, Vidal and Sohn’s Tempo Werkes and Carl Borgward’s Goliath Werkes. Rasmussen had retained full ownership of Framo, excluding it from the Auto-Union merger and had placed his sons, Ove and Anton, in charge of the company.
Thwarted in his ambitions at DKW, Rasmussen initiated a budget car project at Framo in 1931. To avoid accusations of theft of DKW’s intellectual property, Framo’s new car would be a three wheeled “mini-car” targeting a market below that of even the F1. (Framo specialized in 3-wheel delivery vans and even produced 3 wheeled passenger cars). The new car was Spartan in the extreme. A 192cc DKW single cylinder, air-cooled stationary engine was mounted in the front, with chain drive to the front wheels. The chassis was a simple, hollow tube, which doubled as the exhaust. The front of the car was reminiscent of the DKW F1 with its metal (false) radiator grill and bonnet. The rest of the body was leatherette covered plywood. The passenger cabin was highly streamlined, which gave the car its name, the “stromer”, but it made for a very tight squeeze and the vision to the sides and rear was poor. At only 300 kgs the car was extremely light weight – but then it had to be given the tiny size of its engine. When the Stromer went on sale in 1932 much was made of its low maintenance and running costs and that it did not require a driver’s license or pay road tax. Nevertheless, the Stromer did not find the market Rasmussen hoped for, partly because the car’s price tag of RM1400 was quite steep for such a tiny vehicle. Only 360 Stromers were built before production stopped in 1935.
By 1933, Rasmussen was observing developments at Auto-Union from the sidelines as his relationship with the board irretrievably broke down. All sides in the dispute recognized that a final reckoning was not far away. Consequently, when Adolf Hitler opened the 1933 Berlin Auto Show with a speech calling on car manufacturers to build ‘the people’s car’, Rasmussen saw an opportunity to trump his former company’s dominance in the small car market.
When Hitler had called for ‘the cheap car’ in 1933, there was little consensus as to what that meant. DKW F2 was one of the cheapest cars in the market but this was still well outside the price range of the working masses. Opel’s all steel small car, the P-4, at 1650 Reichsmark was even further out of reach. Jozef Ganz, the motoring critic and mini-car enthusiast believed a true ‘people’s car’ could not be priced greater than RM1000, but his vision of a RM1000 car was little more than an improved cyclecar. To fulfil Hitler’s brief, Jorge Rasmussen would need to build a car that was cheaper than RM1400 but more credible than one of Ganz’ cyclecars.
Car manufacture in Europe was an expensive business. Almost no one mass produced vehicles and bodywork was still very much an artisanal trade of steel and wood, so cost cutting meant stripping the design back to absolute basics. The rear engine craze of the 1930s was a symptom of the need to simplify design. Transmitting power from a front-mounted engine to the rear wheels involved a transmission tunnel and differential. These were heavy items that cost energy efficiency. There were only two options to remedy this – front engine with front wheel drive, or rear engine with rear wheel drive. Front wheel drive involved some additional engineering to allow the wheels to turn without losing power, so rear mounting the engine was ultimately the simplest technical solution.
Hanomag had pioneered the return to a rear mounted engine in their 2HP Kommisbrot of 1928 and now engineers all across Germany followed suit. The resulting cars from Hansa, Standard and Bungartz were all very similar in concept, as was the Framo Piccolo.
The Framo Piccolo was constructed of a traditional wood frame with plywood panels. Similar to the Big DKWs from the Spandau factory, the body was entirely self-supporting. The chassis, such as it was a single steel spar screwed into the plywood floor, with a cross-member for lateral support. There was only a single door, opening on the right-hand side. There was a traditional looking bonnet at the front, but it did not open. The space underneath was empty except for the steering shaft. Instrumentation was meagre – an ignition switch and a speedometer.
The car was powered by a DKW 300cc EL air-cooled stationary engine, of the type regularly used on Framo’s delivery tricycles. Air cooling was facilitated by a fan shroud, driven off the flywheel. The engine was mounted on the centreline in the rear, with enclosed chain drive to the rear axle. A petrol tank was mounted above the engine in the rear.
At only 3 metres long, the Piccolo lived up to its name. Coming as an open, soft top rather than enclosed cabriolet, the car felt larger than its competitors. It was slightly more practical as it was able to seat four (two adults and two children – or four very cramped adults). By comparison, Josef Ganz’ Standard Superior was practically a two-seater with little more than a luggage bench behind the driver’s seat. Sale price was 1295 Reichsmarks.
The Piccolo was unveiled at the 1934 Berlin Auto Show, along with the Standard Superior and the Hansa 400. The small car manufacturers all held high hopes due to Adolf Hitler’s speech the previous year. The new government had followed up Hitler’s words with actions, dropping road taxes and license conditions for light vehicles. They were to be sorely disappointed, however. On the first day of the show Adolf Hitler had toured the main pavilion, inspecting the displays of Germany’s premier auto makers. Prestige brands, such as Mercedes-Benz and Horch, showcased their latest sports limousines and race cars, but the sensation of the show was a foreign import. The Czechoslovakian Tatra company revealed their new rear-engine streamliner, the Tatra T77. The T77 was unlike anything else on show, instantly drawing Hitler’s attention. Although his entourage tried to hustle him along, Hitler stopped for an extended discussion with Tatra’s director of engineering, Hans Ledwinka. Despite his Czech name, Ledwinka was a fellow German speaker and Hitler conversed as easily with Ledwinka as he would his fellow Austro-Hungarian, Ferdinand Porsche.
The next day Hitler toured the secondary hall, where the smaller producers, motorcycle manufacturers and truck makers showcased their wares. Jorge Rasmussen was on hand to present the Piccolo to Hitler personally. A sign on the windshield of the car mirrored Hitler’s language of the previous year, declaring the Piccolo “the people’s car.” Hitler was not impressed with what he saw, and he dismissed the Piccolo with a comment that it “wasn’t half a grape.”
If any of the budget car makers thought Hitler would be satisfied with their response to his call to build a cheap car for the German people, they were soon disappointed. For the avoidance of any doubt, Hitler clearly articulated that he expected the German motoring industry to deliver a modern steel car, not a motorcycle-engined, plywood cyclecar or three-wheeler. By the end of the year the tax breaks for small vehicles that the companies were relying on were revoked. Small speculative players, such as Bungartz, a tractor maker, withdrew from the market, while the bigger players, such as Hansa, reverted to building standard cars.
Nevertheless, Rasmussen and Framo were not deterred. They had a viable budget car which found a small market. The international press, who may not have fully understood Hitler’s vision for the Volkswagen, assumed that the Piccolo, the cheapest car on sale at the Berlin Motor Show, was the promised Volkswagen. Many articles appeared in the motoring press discussing the small car’s merits.
Small numbers were sold in 1934 and 1935. The 1935 model abandoned the coal scuttle bonnet, replacing it with a rebranded DKW F2 false radiator grill. Amazingly, the company even offered a cheaper version, powered by a 200cc engine, which really must have struggled to move the little along. 737 Piccolos were sold by the time production stopped in 1935.
Rasmussen attempted two more budget cars after the Piccolo. The most promising was the handsome Framo Rebello, which featured the sporty looks of the Stromer on four wheels. The engine remained the 300cc DKW sourced two-stroke. Unfortunately, the car never went into series production due to the restrictions imposed by the Nazi Schell plan, which reorganized and regulated the German motoring industry.
The other car was the eponymous named ‘volkswagen’, which closely resembled the contemporary Austrian Steyr Baby. A single prototype was exhibited at the 1936 Berlin Motor Show but went no further.
Under the Schell plan Framo were restricted to manufacturing a single model of light commercial lorry, the V500. The lorry came in two versions, the V500 powered by a water cooled 500cc DKW two-stroke, and V501 powered by an air-cooked 500cc DKW engine. Both lorries were otherwise identical. Interestingly, the V501 air-cooled engine built by Framo under license from DKW would evolve into the Trabant 500cc engine.
